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ex < juibus informatio peti possit , quid in singulis legihus bene aut perperam positum aut constitutum sit . " * I do not know if , in Bacon ' s prophetic anticipations of the future progress of physics , there be any thing more characteristical , both of the grandeur
&nd of the justness of his conceptions , than this short definition $ more particularly , when we consider how widely Grotius , in a work professedly devoted to this very inquiry , was soon after to wander from the right path , in consequence of his vague and "wavering idea of the aim of his resea rches * The sagacity , however , displayed in these and various other passages of a similar import , can b y no means be duly appreciated , without attending , at the same time , to the cautious and
* JDe Fmitibus Juris , Apbor . 6 . From tbe preface to a small tract of Bacon ' s , entitled The Elements of the Common Zsccws of England , ( written while he was Solicitor-General to Queen Elizabeth ) , we learn , that the phvase i € gum leges had been previously used by some great civilian . ' * To what civilian Bacon here alludes , I know not ; but , "whoever he was , I doubt much if he annexed to it the comprehensive and philosophical meaning , so precisely explained in the above definition . Bacon himself , ¦ when he wrote his Tract on the Common Laws , does not seem to have yet risen to this vantage-ground of universal
jurisprudence . His great object ( he tells us ) was " to collect the rules and grounds dispersed throughout the body of the same laws , in order to see more profoundly into the reason of such judgments and ruled cases , and thereby to make more use of them for the decision of other cases more doubtful ; so that the uncertainty of law , which is the principal and most just chal-R > ny ; e that is made to the laws of our nation
at this time , will , by this new strength laid to the foundation , be somewhat the jaune settled and corrected . " In this passage , no reference whatever is made to the universal justice spoken of in the aphorisms de Fontibus Juris ; but merely tc > the leading and governing rules which give to a municipal system whatever it possesses of analogy and consistency . To these rules Bacon gives the title of leges iegum ; but the meaning of the phrase , on this occasion , differs from that in which he afterwards employed it , not less widely than the rules of Latin or of Greek syntax differ from the principles of universal erammar .
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temperate maxims so frequently incnL cated by the author , on the subject nf political innovation . « A stubbed retention of customs is a tu rbulent thing , not less than the introduction of new . "— " Time is the greatest innovator ; shall we then not imitate time which innovates so silently as to mock the sense ? " Nearly connected with these aphorisms , are the profound reflections in the first book De Aug . mentis Scientiarum , on the necessity of accommodating every new institution to the character and circumstances of the people for whom it is intended ; and on the peculiar danger which literary men run of overlooking this
consideration , from the familiar ao quaintance they acquire , in the course of their early studies , with the ideas and sentiments of the ancient clasics . The remark of Bacon on the syste * matical policy of Henry VII . was manifestl y suggested by the same train of thinking . " His laws ( whoso
marks them well ) were deep and not vulgar ; not made on the spur of a particular occasion for the present , but out of providence for the future ; to make the estate of his people still more and more happy , after the manner of the legislators in ancient and heroic times . " How far this noble
eulogy was merited , either by the legislators of antiquity , or by the modern Prince on whom Bacon has bestowed it , is a question of little moment . I quote it merely on account of the important philosophical distinction which it indirectly marks ,
between " deep and vulgar laws ; " the former invariably aiming to accomplish their end , not by giving any sudden shock to the feelings and interests of the existing generation , but by allowing to natural causes time and opportunity to operate ; and by removing those artificial obstacles which check the progressive tendencies of society . It is probable , that , on this occasion , Bacon had an eye more particularly to the memorable statute of alienation ; to the effects of which ( whatever were the motives ot
" us author ) the above description cer * tainl y applies in an eminent degree . After all , however , it must be acknowledged , that it is rather in n » general views and maxims , than t the details of his political theory that Bacon ' s sagacity appears to a vantage . His notigna with respec
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5 O ® Estimate of the Philosophical Character of Lord Bacon .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 506, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/6/
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